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toctt Tndta, 

Conteprpng the nawgarions and comqueties 

WN of the Spaupacdes, worthy che pacticular des 
' fcription of the mote rpche and large landes 
and Flandes lacelp founde ws che wel Ocean 

, pertepnpirg to che mbecitaunce of rhe kinges 
of Hpayne. Tr ehe tolpicl ele diltgene ceader 
map notonly conlpder hac commoditie map 
Hercebp chawuitce co the Hole chztRian world as 
tpmeto come, but alfolcarne manp Ceceeates 
tonchpnge the lande the f2a,and che Garces, 
berp necefacie to be knolpé to al fuch as thal 

artempte any nauigations,o2 othertoile 
bauc Delite to beyolde the Arange 
AnD woonderfull wao2kes of 
od and nature. 
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Carty, of Sngleria, and eran{: 


fared into EnglpThe bp 
Upcbarde Lodets, 
CLONDINE, 
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ANNO. 15§§, 


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= SaaS We es 





THE EARLIEST COLLECTION OF VOYAGES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 


In this book Richard Eden collected some of the important writings of 
Peter Martyr, Oviedo, Gomara, Vespuccius and the Bull of Demarcation 
by Pope Alexander VI. 


THE WHYS AND WHEREFORES 
OF THE | 


WILLIAM L. CLEMENTS LIBRARY 


A Brief Essay on Book-Collecting 
as a Fine Art 


By RanpDoLtpH G. ADAMS 





ANN ARBOR 
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 
MCMXXV 





w 
¢ 


FOREWORD 


HIS little essay is adapted with some 
¥ changes from an interview which ap- 
peared in the Michigan Daily for May 
pee 24, 1925. That interview was given 
with great reluctance after repeated requests, and 
it is now put in more permanent form in response 
to a demand for some such brief interpretation of 
the Library. There is no thought that it contains 
any contribution to the subject of which it treats. 
It is intended for those who daily visit the Library 
with no great previous knowledge of its function, 
and who ask many questions which it is perfectly 
right and natural they should ask. If what is writ- 
ten here helps even in a small way to answer those 
questions, it will have fulfilled its purpose. The 
illustrations and initials are from books in the 
Library. 





THE WHY AND WHEREFORES OF 
THE WILLIAM L. CLEMENTS 
LIBRARY. 


Raney MONG the greatest problems of mod- 
LSyNGO ern civilization is the proper applica- 
(S) ae y tion of the surplus energy of human 
G3 o29¢ beings. ‘That surplus has-come largely 
through the shortened hours of labor made pos- 
sible by applied science. ‘The overcrowded condi- 
tion of all our universities is only one evidence of 
the fact that humanity, in America certainly, has 
decided to devote a greater amount of its leisure 
than ever before to the things of the mind. Ignor- 
ant though they are of what they come to seek, 
and unsatisfactory as are the methods by which 
the modern university is handling these swarms 
of students, the fact is nevertheless undeniable 
that Americans have more time than ever before 
which, if they choose, they might devote to mat- 
ters of culture. Our problem is to help create a 
civilization which does not degenerate under that 
leisure. It is one of the most dangerous situations 
which confronts any nation that has reached an 
advanced stage of human development. 

To explain the William L. Clements Library in 
a few paragraphs is not simple. I hope I shall not 
offend anyone if I suggest that in many cases it 
is too much like trying to teach an unmusical per- 
son to play the piano in the course of an afternoon. 
But it is so increasingly evident that this Library, 


2D 















and all such libraries, have an important contribu- 
tion to make to our social life, to the safeguarding 
of our civilization, that I shall venture upon the ~ 
task. Moreover, when the question has been fairly 
put and in good spirit, as to just what the Library 
is all about, anyone who really wants to know is 
entitled to a fair answer. As Custodian of a 
library which exists because a man knew how to 
employ his spare time, I am deeply concerned with 
making clear the debt which humanity owes to all 
such men. I believe if more people were book- 
collectors two things would result of great bene- 
fit to humanity. In the first place these people 
would become so fascinated they would have no 
time for more harmful dissipations. But second 
and more important, they would leave behind them 
materials with which men may work in freeing the 
human mentality from the shackles of ignorance, 
superstition and prejudice. 

To most people a library is a piece of public 
property which should serve the whole of the com- 
munity in which it stands. It should supply them 
with such books as they need, as efficiently as pos- 
sible and without any meticulous regard for what 
happens to the books. Any book which has been 
worn out in public service has fulfilled its purpose, 
and since the process of printing has been so per- 
fected in recent years, the replacement of the book 
ought to be relatively easy. We are taught in 
America that education is our birthright, and 
therefore we seem to conclude that whatever a 


2 


library can do to serve our educational needs, that 
we may fairly demand it shall perform for us. I 
am not at all sure that this is the correct concep- 
tion of the ordinary public or university or free 
library, but it does seem to be the conception held 
by most of its patrons. 

Therefore, when a library appears on a Uni- 
versity campus which does not at all comply with 
these notions of what a library ought to be and do, 
there is bound to be a certain amount of wonder- 
ment, and, in less well informed quarters, a certain 
amount of critical comment. ‘To those lovers of 
books whom this Library is especially intended to 
serve, such an interpretation as I shall try to pre- 
sent seems alike unnecessary and inappropriate. 
Those who really understand and appreciate such 
a library are apt to feel that it is quite useless to 
defend it to people who cannot enjoy it without 
defense. But I shall not take that attitude, be- 
cause I am interested in increasing the number of 
those who can share in the joys of the collection. 
This does not mean that I believe we can make 
book-lovers. But I firmly believe there are poten- 
tial book-lovers, necessarily men of a sensitive na- 
ture, who are overwhelmed by the physical and 
intellectual brutality of the modern University. 
To such men the library might become a refuge 
from the appalling crudeness of mob education, 
public hazing and initiations, and organized semi- 
professional college athletics. But this is one of 

3 


LAA PRIGILEBIO 





TITLE-PAGE OF EARLIEST COLLECTION OF VOYAGES RELATING TO AMERICA 


This book contains the accounts of the voyages of Casa da Mosto, Vasco 
da Gama, Cabral, Columbus, Pinzon, Vespuccius, and others. It was 
printed at Venice in 1507. 


the functions of the Library which it takes years 
to develop. , 

It is my firm belief that every University should: 
strive to capitalize the enthusiasm of the book-col- 
lector and tempt him by providing generously to 
care for whatever he has spent his life collecting. 
If more book-collectors could see some genuine 
appreciation of their hobbies in university circles, 
they would naturally be much more inclined to en- 
trust their treasures to those universities. In our 
University Library the collection of Dr. Lucius L. 
Hubbard is further evidence of the reward which 
comes to the librarian who appreciates the collec- 
tor’s viewpoint. If all universities would establish 
these cultural libraries with due regard to the feel- 
ing that the original collector had for his books, 
I have an idea that it would return excellent 
dividends. 

To book-lovers the idea of the William L. Cle- 
ments Library is not new—indeed, it is very old. 
But it is a new idea to the multitude, and it is the 
multitude with which we are dealing. The indi- 
vidual who dares to introduce a new idea to the 
multitude necessarily has to endure years of per- 
secution, even though his idea is ultimately of im- 
mense benefit to civilization. Men are today at 
work in our laboratories of chemistry and physics 
who would have been burned at the stake in the 
middle ages for experiments they perform every 
day. ‘Today our economists play in public with 
ideas for which but a short century ago they would 


5 


have been deported to a penal colony. Every new 
department of human knowledge has to fight for 
its existence against the bitter prejudices of the 
multitude. But the world makes its progress be- 
cause thinking men go steadily on without heeding 
the assaults of those who attack what they will not 
tarry to understand. A Library which violates all 
the preconceived ideas of the multitude of what a 
library should do must expect a certain amount of 
criticism. 

But what is this new department which the 
donor of the William L. Clements Library has 
established? What does it propose to do that is 
not already being done? I should say that it is to 
stimulate the fine art of book-collecting and to 
cultivate an interest in the science of bibliography. 
Of course a primary purpose of the library is to 
promote the study of American history, but we 
have a department of history at the university 
which has been doing that for decades, and so, al- 
though that is one of the first functions of the 
library, there is nothing new about it. The science 
of bibliography is worthy of a much more extended 
consideration than I can give it in an essay which 
I would rather devote to book-collecting as a fine 
art. | 

I think no one will deny that among the most 
precious possessions of the human race are its writ- 
ings and records preserved in book-form. An in- 
calculable amount has been lost. Let us take the 
three principal writers of Greek tragedy as our 


6 


examples. Sophocles wrote about a hundred plays 
—only seven are known to us. About seventy-five 
tragedies are attributed to Euripides—of which 
barely twenty survive. Aeschylus wrote more 
than a hundred dramas—of which only six have 
come down to us. The loss of this literature may 
be in a large measure due to the accidental destruc- 
tion of the first Alexandrian Library by Julius 
Caesar, and the intentional burning of the second 
great Alexandrian |Library by certain fanatical 
Christian. sects of the fourth century, A.D. The 
historian Gibbon exonerated the Caliph Omar from 
his fabled responsibility for this destruction more 
than a hundred years ago, and modern research 
supports Gibbon. It would be easy to go on and 
mention the burning of the great library of the 
Caliphs by the so-called Christian King Ferdinand 
of Castile, or to dig again in the ashes of the first 
indigenous American literature of which the sol- 
dier of Cortez made a bonfire in the City of Mex- 
ica in 1520. The Mexican bibliographer, Icazbal- 
ceta has relieved Archbishop Zumarraga, whom 
Prescott charged with this crime, from the odium 
of this destruction of the Aztec manuscripts. But 
of the destruction there is no doubt. No wonder 
Richard de Bury accounted war among the chief 
enemies of books. 

But it is unnecessary to go so far back. In the 
first year of our Library’s existence at Ann Arbor, 
a distinguished Russian bibliophile spent several 
hours with us. He told the tale of a great library 


7 


in Moscow, which, in the estimation of some Soviet 
Commissar, was occupying too much space. So 
the bolshevik official held the office force of the 
ministry of food-supplies over one Saturday after- 
noon and turned them loose in the library to “con- 
solidate’” the books on to fewer shelves. They did. 
In one short afternoon’s work they undid the use- 
fulness of a library built up during centuries of 
work. ‘This is not a tale of destruction. Destruc- 
tion was unnecessary. When he saw the havoc he 
had wrought, the Commissar naively called in our 
visitor to bring order out of the chaos produced 
by a lot of stenographers and clerks re-arranging 
a library in the interests of “economy.” Our visi- 
tor’s only comment was, “Shortly thereafter I 
escaped from Russia.” 

When in 1919 Bela Kun and his fellow Com- 
munists got possession of the Government of Hun- 
gary, it is reported that they insisted on burning 
as much of the old capitalist literature of history, 
economics and politics as they could find. A few 
months later the present administration of Regent 
Horthy turned the Communists out and it is re- 
corded that it celebrated the return of capitalism 
by burning many books in the ‘Budapest Library 
which represented the new heresies of socialism and 
communism. A few more such enthusiastic po- 
litical revivals and ‘Budapest will not be a very 
good place for research. 

During the past winter there came a visitor to 
our library who had been in a position to know 


8 


something of the affairs of Ireland during the 
stormy times. He related the story of how the 
Sinn-Feiners were driven into the public record 
office of Dublin by the Free State troops, and 
when they found themselves hopelessly defeated, 
thought to avenge theselves by burning the prec- 
ious records of Ireland from early times. Here is 
one crime against Irish civilization which can hard- 
ly be charged to the English. 

But it is easy to see the faults of others. One of 
the most important sources of raw materials for 
investigators in history, economics and _ political 
science are the collections of vital statistics which 
any government may be expected to keep. There are 
no general dependable vital statistics in the United 
States before the first census of 1790. Therefore 
the records of that first census are precious beyond 
calculation. Where are they? Burned, and 
burned within the past five years because the gov- 
ernment of the United States, the richest in the 
world, has not yet seen fit to appropriate money 
for a public archives building. The most insig- 
nificant of EKuropean countries have such reposi- 
tories, but the great United States is not yet suf- 
ficiently enlightened to care for its public records 
in a separate and fire-proof building. 

Any book-collector could multiply stories of 
this sort endlessly, stories of Caxtons torn apart 
to wrap up fish and butter, stories of the precious 
DeBry engravings from the priceless Hariot’s Vir- 
ginia, cut up to make patterns for a tailor, stories 


9 


ag A briefe and true re- 


portofthe new found and of Virginia: of 


the commores there found andto be rayfed,as wellmar- 
chantable, as others for viQuall building and other necefla- 
rie vfes for thofethat are and fhalbe the planters there; and of the na~ 
ture and manners of the naturall inhabicants : _Difcoucred by the 
Englifs Colony there feated by Six Richard Greinutle Kuight in the 


yeere 1585. which remained vnder the gouernment of Rafe Lane Efqui- 
er, one of her Maiefties Equieres, during rhefpace of twelue monssbes ; at 
the fpeciall charge and direétion of the Honourable SIR 
WALTER RALEIGH Knight, Lord Warden of 
the ftanneries ; who therein hath beenc fauou- 
red and authorifed by her Maicftie and 
her letters patents: 


Directed to the Aduenturers, Fauourers, 
andWelvwollers of the aktion, for theimbabi-~ 
ting and planting theres 
By Thomas Hariot, {eruantto the abouenamed 


Sic Walter,a member of the Colony, and 
there imployed in difconering. 


‘ 
Coien 
Aah. 7B 
g 
y 
i 
4 
Ni 2 
Vo 


. 3 J 
ALY FY Bs —_ 
le Ve gs 
Ss Uutpiney, 
af: 7 yt) TONS 
a3 c pen 

. Sey) 


- 





Imprinted at London 1588. : 


First ENGLISH BooK ON THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN AMERICA 


of beautiful seventeenth and eighteenth century 
books torn apart that their armorial binding might | 
be used to make cigarette boxes, scrap-baskets or 
writing cases, and sold in the so-called “Art De- 
partments” of the department stores. But why 
goon? Surely enough has been said to make clear 
that as long as human beings are what they are, 
we need to foster a cult whose duty it is to preserve 
books and manuscripts, and we need buildings in 
which that can be done in a fitting manner. They 
are to be preserved for the scholar and he is always 
more than welcome in such libraries as ours. But 
no one would, I believe, advocate that the irre- 
placeable treasures of the past be entrusted to per- 
sons who are not yet equipped to handle them. 

This University, let me repeat, and all universi- 
ties, are interested in increasing the number of peo- 
ple who are competent to use a library of rare 
books. That is one reason why the library has been 
entrusted to the University of Michigan. But I 
think no one will deny that there are thousands 
here at the university (as at every university in 
the land) who have not yet prepared themselves so 
that they are fit to be entrusted with the rare vol- 
umes to be found in the William L. Clements 
Library. — 3 : 

In the administration of such a library as this, 
it is imperative that certain conditions be laid down 
under which the books may be used. I have yet to 
find any one who is really trained to use the library 
who has the slightest objection to the formalities 


11 


we impose. Such complaints as there are come al- 
together from another quarter. I was very much 
interested in the accounts given by the Librarian 
of our University Library, Mr. Bishop, of the recep- 
tion he met last summer when he visited the great 
Italian Libraries at Rome, Florence and Venice. 
Although Mr. Bishop was known personally and 
by reputation to the custodians of these collections, 
yet they imposed upon him the same restrictions 
which they imposed upon anyone else. Before he 
was permitted to use the volumes, in the Vatican 
Library, he was required to present a letter of in- 
troduction from the American Ambassador at 
Rome. Similar restrictions are in force wherever 
there are rare books. 

As to readers, the Library follows as liberal a 
policy as, I believe, can be found anywhere in the 
world. We are open forenoon and afternoon to— 
serious scholars on all week days. The general 
public and the casual visitor present another kind 
of a problem. ‘To them the Main Room is open 
every afternoon from two until five. This is a 
more liberal policy than that adopted at the John 
Rylands Library at Manchester, one of the great- 
est in England, which admits the general public 
only two afternoons a week. I would not have this 
interpreted as in any sense a reflection on the John 
Rylands Library. It is simply an evidence of how 
the appreciative librarian feels about his books. 
Casual visitors are necessarily confined to our 
Main Room from which they can see all that 


12 


could be of interest to them. From it they can see 
into the Rare Book Room and view the other parts 
of the Main Room with its tasteful furniture, up- 
holstery and hangings. The reason for equipping 
the Library with very handsome but harmonious 
furnishings is a very simple one—any works of art 
can be ruined by an improper setting, and the‘sub- 
title of this essay indicates how the true book lover 
regards his books. Yet that very setting must be 
cared for as the Library itself. One example will, 
I believe, make this clear. At one time two of the 
handsome chairs, upholstered in light blue silk vel- 
vet, were placed inside the silken ropes which sep- 
arate the rest of the Main Room from that part to 
which visitors are admitted. A lady sought refuge 
in the Library from a rainstorm and sat down in 
one of these chairs in a drenching wet raincoat. As 
long as there are ladies of that sort—the Library 
must protect itself against them. 

Of course upon occasions when the Main Room 
of the Library is used for talks and other affairs 
held there to stimulate interest in bibliography, 
book-collecting and American history, the furni- 
ture is for use. At those times people of apprecia- 
tion are invited to the Library and all the Library’s 
resources are available to satisfy whatever interest 
they may have in helping to realize the ideals which 
the founder of this Library had in mind when he 
placed his books here. 

But let us return to the books. It has already 
been said that this is primarily a collection of the 


13 


GQ Epiftola Chiiftofo:i Colom:ent etas noftramnleti deber: de 
Fniulis Indic fupra Gangem'nuper inuetis-Ad qeas perqreine 
das octauo antea mente aufpiciis 7 ere innicnflemon Fernadi 4 
Deifabes Difpaniak Regi mifius fuerar.ad magnificum dim 
Gabriclem Sanchia.corundeferenifinor Regum Tefaurariti 
miffasqua nobilis.ac literate vir Leanderde Cof:o ab bifpa 
woidiomasein latingim-cOuertit tertio kais D2 ait- 99. cece-reitt 
Pontificatus Bterandri Sexti Anno primoe 


‘Cloniam fifcepte pronintie rem perfectam me afecurum 

fuiffe gyatam tibi fore {cto:bag conftitni exarare: que te 

pninftuinfgztetin boc noitro itinere gefte inuentecp ade 
moneant:Zricelimoatértio die polt@ Gadibus difcelti inmare 
§ndici perueni:ybi plurimas infulas innumeris babitatas bo- 
tinibus repperi:quarum omnium pro felicifftmo Rege noftro 
preconio.celebzato 2 verillis extenfis contradicente nemine poft 
feffionemsaccept:primecp earum dini Saluatozs nomem impor 
fpi:cnius fretns aurilio tam ad banc: p ad ceterasalias perues 
ninntis-Cam Xo Indi Guanabanin vocant- Hhrarii etiam vnam 
Guang nono nomine nuncupaut: quippe aka infalam Saneee 
Marie Conceptionis-aliam Fernandinamy aham Dpfabellame 
aliam Joanany-2 fic de reliquis appellariinffi-Cum primumas 
eam infulain quam dudumFoanam vocart dixiuppoimnarius 
gtdchia littns occidentemverfus aliquantnlum procefit:ramags 
eam magnhm nulloveperto fine innenisvt non infola: fed comst 
nentemn Chatat pouinciam efle crediderim: nulla ti videns op 
pida minicipiene in maritimisfita.confinih? preter aliquos vie 
006 1 piedia raftica:cim quor incolialoqni nequibam-quare if 
mulacnoervidebane furtipiebantfugam: Progrediebar vltras 
éxiftinians aliquaeme yrbem villafne inuentari-Denig videns 
q@ longe adniodusrpogreMis nibil noni emergebdat:7 bmoi via 
nos ad Septentrionem defprebatzq ipfe fugere exoptabarterris 
etenim regnabae binmasad Anftr umg eratin yoto cotenderes 


A “COLUMBUS LETTER” PRINTED AT ROME IN 1493 BY STEPHAN PLANNCK 


sources of American history, and as it is one of 
our aims to work in the closest harmony and co- 
operation with the University Library it is only nat- 
ural that we should strive to secure those volumes 
which the University Library frequently cannot af- 
ford. In the case of American history these 
would necessarily be the books published long ago, 
and consequently our specialty has been in the 
earlier periods of American history. We must 
secure for Michigan those books which, on account 
of their extreme rarity, are so rapidly going off the 
market that unless a department of the University 
is making a particular business of getting them, 
twenty or thirty years from now it will be impos- 
sible to secure them at any price. 

Let two examples suffice of such important 
books. When Columbus returned from his first 
voyage in 1493 he wrote a short letter describing 
what he had found. It is the first printed docu- 
ment in American history as such. Although 
printing was in its infancy, having been invented 
less than fifty years before, the popularity of this 
“Columbus Letter” was so great that it ran 
through eleven editions in the year of its first pub- 
lication. When we think of the difficulties of 
printing in those days, that is a remarkable record. 
But its record of popularity is even greater than 
those figures would indicate, for those editions 
came not all from one press. Printers in Bar- 
celona, Rome, Paris, Basle, Florence and Antwerp 
all produced editions of the Columbus Letter in 


15 


COSMOGRAPHIAE 
Capadociam/Pamphiliam/ Lidia/ Cilicia/ Armes 
nias maiorem & minorem. Colchiden/Hircaniam 
Hiberiam/ Albaniam:& preterea muleas quas fir 
gillatin enumerare longa mora effet, Ita dicta ab ef 
us nOominis regina. 

Nunc vero & heg partes fune latius fuftratae/ 8 
alia quarta pars per Americtt Vefputiumy ve in fes 
quentibus audietur)inuenta eft:qua non video cur 

Ames quis ire vetet ab Americo inuentore fagacis inge 

fico nij viroAmerigen quafi Ameriti terram/fiue Ame 
ricam dicendam:cum & Europa & Altaa mulieris 
bus fua fortica fine nomina.Eius fieu 8 gentis mos 
res ex bis binis Americi nauigationibus qu¢ fequis 
tur liquide intelligi dacur. 

Hunc in modum terra iam quadripartita copno 
(citur: 8¢ funt tres primze partes cStinentes: quarta 
eft infula: cum omni quaqs mari circudata cofpicia 
eur. Et licet mare wnu fic quéadmodum & ipfa tele 
fus:multis tamen finibus diftinétum/ & innumeris 

_.__ repletum infulis varia fibi noia affumit:qua: in Cof 

Prilca. mographig tabulis confpiciuntur: & Pnfcianus in 
tralatione Dionify talibus enumerat verfibus, 
Circuit Oceani gurges ramen vndigs vaftus 
Qui Guis vnus fit/plurima nomina fumit. 
Finibus Hefpertjs Achlanticus ille vocatur 
AtBoreg qua gens furit Armiafpa fub armis 
Dicii tLe piger necnon Satur. idé mortuus eft alijss 


THE PAGE FROM WALDSEEMUELLER’S “COSMOGRAPHIAE INTRODUCTIO” FROM 
WHICH AMERICA RECEIVED ITS NAME. 


that year. Yet of all of those editions only a very 
few of each survice. Of the first edition but one is 
known in the entire world. Our Library has a 
beautiful copy of the third edition, from the library 
of Henry Huth. Mr. Wilberforce Eames notes that 
there are only twenty surviving copies of this edi- 
tion. Upon the rare occasions when it comes on 
the market, it brings thousands of dollars. Is that 
a book to be handed out to every curiosity seeker? 
Is it a plaything to be “put on special reference?” 

Nearby on the same shelf is a copy of the 1507 
edition of Waldseemiiller’s Cosmographiae Intro- 
ductio, wherein that well-intentioned but misin- 
formed school-master suggested that since Am- 
erigo Vespucci had discovered the New World it 
ought to be named after him, America. Is that an 
important book? But for it, we might never have 
been mis-named Americans. On account of one 
short paragraph in this little book printed in a 
tiny town in the Vosges Mountains four hundred 
years ago, two mighty continents got the wrong 
name—and the truth has never overtaken error. 
It is difficult to assess the value of such a book. 
No History of America has ever been written or 
ever can be written without not only referring to 
this book, but actually mentioning it by name. Can 
we afford to leave that on an open shelf to be 
handled by every chance visitor to the Library? 
If we did so we would not long have it to show to 
the real scholar who has a genuine claim to see it. 

A similar story could be told of thousands of 


17 


other books on the shelves of the William L. Clem- 
ents Library. Should such volumes be placed 
where the students can get at them? Let me make 
a distinction. In the modern University there are 
some of us who draw a very sharp line between 
“students” and “scholars.” This Library is in- 
tended for the use of scholars, but no one is likely 
to say that all students are scholars. Indeed, I am 
inclined to think, and this is only a personal opin- 
ion, that the vast majority of students are not 
scholars. No, the Library and its books are not 
for the use of the students. The conclusion as to 
their relation to this Library is inevitable. 
Moreover, there are instructors and professors 
in the University who do not scruple to demand 
that the University Library “put on special refer- 
ence” a periodical of which the Library has but one 
copy, that several hundred underclassmen may 
read a two-page article on the minimum wage, or 
some such subject. After three or four hundred 
students have pawed over the volume it is fre- 
quently never again available for the man who has 
a legitimate claim to use it. ‘Too often the leaves 
are entirely cut out. It is not necessary to remark 
that that professor might have provided a dozen 
photostats of that article for a few cents each. As 
long as there are such instructors and professors, 
our Library proposes to protect itself against them. 
In addition to this there are readers on the cam- 
pus who seem unable to sit down with a book with- 
out underlining passages in pencil, or cutting out 


18 


maps or pictures which appeal to them. As long as 
such readers are at large, this Library proposes to 
maintain its defences. | 

On being asked by Mr. Clements to accept this 
position, I remarked that the task seemed to be 
one of mediating between being hospitable and be- 
ing careful. I believe that statement is not far 
from the truth. As long as I remain here, I intend 
to make my mistakes in the matter of hospitality 
rather than in the matter of care. An error in 
hospitality can be rectified by an apology or other 
explanation. A mistake in care may be absolutely 
impossible to rectify, if a unique volume is lost or 
damaged. Therefore the Library does not propose 
to take any chances whatever in entrusting its 
treasures to those who are not properly introduced, 
or who by their manners or actions do not commend . 
themselves as trustworthy. 

In an ordinary library a volume lost may be re- 
placed.. In our Library, in all probability, a book 
cannot be replaced for the simple reason that a 
duplicate does not exist for sale. A public library 
is an indispensable necessity in a democracy, but 
this is another kind of library. When a higher 
stage of civilization has been reached, when men of 
wealth, culture and refinement have a little more 
leisure than is possible in the lower stages of human 
progress, we always find another type of library 
springing up. Italy, France and England have 
had such libraries for centuries and as culture and 
civilization have made their way in America, such 


19 


libraries have appeared in Philadelphia, New York, 
Boston and elsewhere. In those libraries the orig- 
inal collector treats his books with a meticulous 
care which they merit. As time has gone on collec- 
tors have become more and more fastidious about 
the volumes they are willing to admit to their 
shelves. Defective copies of books, books of which 
the margins of the pages have been trimmed by the 
binder’s knife—these are the abomination of the 
collector. What difference does it make? What 
difference does it make whether your linen is soiled 
or your shoes unpolished ? 

Many of these collections, built with great sac- 
rifice and persistence by some enthusiastic collec- 
tor, find their way ultimately to a public institu- 
tion. There they get into the hands of employees 
who are seldom better informed than the multitude 
itself as to the value of books, or possessed of any 
greater appreciation of the fine points of a book. 
Then we have the tragedy of a great library al- 
lowed to degenerate in the hands of the enemies of 
books, careless human beings, against whom Rich- 
ard de Bury wrote his Philobiblon five hundred 
years ago. No wonder every new generation of 
book-collectors republishes the Philobiblon. An 
understanding of its contents and principles ought 
to be a “prerequisite for admission” to such libraries 
as ours. One of the purposes of our Library is to 
help foster a generation of people who can go out 
and take care of the increasing number of libraries 
of this sort, a profession which can relieve the col- 


20 


lector from the details of the arrangement of his 
library and leave him free to gather in more books. 
But such a person must have the feeling that the 
collector himself has for his books. The qualifica- 
tions for such a position are more than those of pro- 
ficiency in Library School training. Ours is a 
Library of twenty thousand volumes without any 
little paper labels defacing the backs of the books 
to indicate classifications, and without any call 
numbers on the catalogue cards. 

But let us consider the collector himself. I wish 
some industrious person would write a book on the 
immense debt that civilization owes to the man 
who amasses books, if he never does anything else. 
The books which the genuine collector will admit 
_ to his shelves are only important books. Few peo- 
ple are interested in collecting unimportant books. 
People of that calibre are collecting cigar bands 
and milk tops. But the point is that it is not for 
the multitude to say what are important books. 
What constitutes an important books is a matter 
of considerable study, and the book-collector makes 
it his business to master that subject. If he knows 
that a book is important, his opinion is apt to be 
worth more than that of the man in the street. In- 
deed it is not long before others bear eloquent trib- 
ute to the correctness of his knowledge by imitating 
his collection. If he does nothing but make the 
collection, he has accomplished a life work. The ex- 
ploitation of the collection can safely be left to 
those less courageous individuals who write books 


21 





O R, 
A Poetical Defcription of the 
Great and Laft 


Sudagment. 


With a fhore Difcourfe about 


ETERNITY 








By Michael Wigglefworth, A. M. Teacher of the 
Church in Maldon, New-England. 





The Seventl) Cation, Enlarged. 








See 





With a Recoemmendatory £p:f/e (in Verfe) by the Rev 
Mr. John Mitchel Allo Mr. Wigglefworth’s Character 
by Dr Cotton Martner. 








A&s 17 431. Becaufe he hath appointed a Day in the which 
he carll yudge thy World in Righteoufnels, by that Man 
whom he hath erdcimed. 

Mat 24. 30. And tin fall appear the Sign of the Son of 
Man in Heaven, and then thall ali the Tribes of the Earth 
meurn, and they foall fee the Son of Man coming in the 
Clouds of Heavcn, wutth Power and great Glory. 











ee eee 








BOSTON Printed and fold by Thomas Fleet, at the 
Heart and Crown in Cornhill. 1751, 


THTLE-PAGE OF WIGGLESWORTH’S “Day OF Doom.” 


“No narrative of our intellectual history during the colonial days can 
justly fail to record the enormous influence of this terrible poem during 
all those times.’’ Moses Coit TYLER. 


from the sources to be found in the collector’s 
library. I call them “less courageous” because they 
take no chances, they do not sacrifice all other 
earthly treasures in the building up of the library 
which they are privileged to enjoy. Moreover they 
are in most cases people with good analytic minds 
who can best use the collection—but then many 
people have that kind of mind. The mind of the 
collector is essentially synthetic and imaginative. 
He sees without logical processes the importance 
of a book before the patient investigator finds the 
reason for its importance. In a very real sense the 
collector frequently foresees the importance of a 
book before the writer of a dissertation thereon. 
Indeed the investigator probably would never see 
the book if the collector had not rescued it. How- 
ever, volumes could be written on this subject. 
Let us consider this matter of importance 
a little further. If a book has been read by thou- 
sands of people, and published in dozens of differ- 
ent editions, it would be hard to deny that it had 
some influence. Its influence on the course of 
human progress is one of the things that makes it 
an important book. But it is just those books 
which are often the rarest, which bring the highest 
prices, and which are the most eagerly sought after 
by the collector. One illustration will suffice here. 
On our shelves there is a small volume in a broken 
binding, and not in the fresh condition the col- 
lector most desires, but carefully preserved in a 
morocco slipcase. It is entitled “The Day of 


23 


Doom” and was written by the Reverend Michael 
Wigglesworth, and published at Boston in 1715. 
It is a little bit of New England religious poetry, 
but it has molded the thought of America as 
positively and as effectively as almost any book 
of its day. Of this “blazing and sulphurous” vol- 
ume, Moses Coit Tyler has said, “This great poem, 
which with entire unconsciousness, attributes to the 
Divine Being a character the most execrable and 
loathsome to be met with, perhaps in any literature, 
Christian or Pagan, had for a hundred years a 
popularity far exceeding any other work, in prose 
or verse, produced in America before the Revolu- 
tion.” But we have no copy of the first edition 
—nor of the second, nor the third, nor the fourth, 
nor the fifth. Where are they all? They were so 
popular that they were read to pieces. One of our 
copies is the sixth edition. Some years ago Mr. 
Clements came across a copy of the seventh edi- 
tion, its binding in tatters, but he paid a large sum 
for it and entrusted it to the English binder 
Riviere that it might be reverently covered with a 
new morocco binding as sumptuous as the im- 
portance of such a work demanded. If you would 
understand the “Puritan Conscience” which has so 
powerfully molded American thought these three 
hundred years, you must go to this little book. 
That is what a collector means by an important 
book,—a book which has helped to change history, 
a book which has had a real part in the creation of 
our civilization and in the indicating of the path of 


24 


our progress. One of the ideals of the William L. 
Clements Library is to have no other books than 
these upon its shelves—and of necessity they are 
often rare books as well. Unless the few surviv- 
ing copies of these books are placed beyond the 
reach of all save those who are qualified to use 
them, there will soon be none left. 

But I would emphasize the work of the collector 
as such. Recently the newspapers carried articles 
about the purchase of a portrait of Giuliano di Me- 
dici by Raphael for many thousands of dollars. 
Whereupon editorial writers set to work to scoff 
at another ignorant rich man who was trying to 
“make a record” in squandering his money. But 
who was this Medici? He was a member of a great 
dynasty of Renaissance bankers whose collections 
of books and pictures were and are among the 
greatest the world has known. Giovanni de Medici 
was a fifteenth century J. Pierpont Morgan. Co- 
simo di Medici, his son, was a successful political 
boss as well as an astute banker. As only rich 
men can, they amassed great numbers of books. 
Doubtless the small-minded among the Floren- 
tines of their day scoffed at them as nouveaux 
riches who could not understand what they had 
bought. Lorenzo and the second Giuliano di Medi- 
ci belong to later generations and they carried 
on the artistic tradition of a great family. Today 
the city of Florence is a mecca to which thousands 
of book-lovers and art-lovers make their yearly 
pilgrimage to see—what? The collections of the 


25 





Medici and other great Florentine collectors. It is 
not recorded that any of the Medici were required 
to write a doctoral dissertation to prove that they 
understood the books which they were collecting. 
It is enough that they were collectors, and thou- 
sands of dissertations have been written because 
they spent huge sums on works of art. Among the 
thousands who annually visit Florence to gaze 
upon the books of the Medici, there are doubtless 
those who go home to jeer at the modern Medicis 
who are building in America the libraries and art- 
galleries which will in the future become focal 
points of American culture. 

A. Edward Newton once put to me the ques- 
tion: “Where would culture be without the collec- 
tor?” The Italian Renaissance itself supplies the 
answer to that question. ‘That great epoch, the 
closing chapter of Medieval History, the opening 
act of the drama of modern times, what was it? I 
should not like to argue to any good medievalist 
that the Renaissance was due solely to the book- 
collectors—but I should cheerfully defy any medie- 
valist to write the story of the Renaissance and 
leave out the part played by Petrarch, Boccaccio 
and their followers in hunting down the Latin man- 
uscripts. I should like to see him try to outline the 
Renaissance and omit the part played by Pope 
Nicholas V and Frederick of Urbino in gathering 
those precious treasures which Petrarch’s enthusi- 
asm uncovered, and importing Greek books from 
Constantinople in time to save them from destruc- 


26 


tion by the Turk. From these collections came 
the great Vatican Library. One might revert to 
the Medici here again, but the story is too well 
known. Perhaps there would be some culture in 
the world without book-collectors, but I should not 
like to have to maintain it. 

The part played in the history of book-col- 
lecting by the donor of our Library is in more than 
one way comparable to that of the great actors of 
the Renaissance. A number of great and devas- 
tating wars in the Near East threw thousands of 
the precious Greek manuscript codices on the mar- 
ket in the fifteenth century. Had the great Ital- 
ian collectors not bought them up and stored them 
in the libraries of Florence, Rome and Venice, 
they might not have survived. It was a golden op- 
portunity for the collector, and a critical moment 
for civilization. Fortunately the wealthy Italian 
bankers and noblemen saved the day. 

In 1914 another great war threw on the market 
thousands of rare books, and among them were 
thousands which were of first importance to Amer- 
ican history. In quick succession in England alone 
the Rowfant, the Bridgewater, the Devonshire and 
the Britwell or Christie-Miller collections went un- 
der the hammer of the auctioneer. The keen-eyed 
American collector saw his chance. He would re- 
peat for America what the Italians of the Quattro- 
cento had done to make Italy a great center of 
literary research. Hundreds and thousands of 
these precious books found their way across the 


27 


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———- 






Atlantic into such libraries of rare books as Mr. 
Clements was building up at Bay City, Michigan. 
It was not merely the chance of a lifetime, it was 
the opportunity of centuries. The acquisition of 
the political papers of Earl Shelburne was charac- 
teristic of many of the incidents which are part of 
the history of the collection. This great body of 
manuscripts—more than two hundred folios—con- 
tained priceless source material for American his- 
tory such as was only to be found in the private ar- 
chives of the man who had been Colonial Minister, 
Foreign Minister and finally Prime Minister of 
England, off and on for fifty years during the 
eighteenth century. Shelburne had been an admin- 
istrator of colonial affairs while the United States 
was a part of the British Empire, and under his 
administration as head of the British government 
had been negotiated the Peace of 1783 between 
Great Britain and the United States. What may 
not those folios contain? But the point is that when 
they finally yield their secrets to the American his- 
torical investigator, it will be impossible to over- 
look the debt which the investigator owes to the 
book-collector. 

With years of persistent search and loyalty to 
his subject the collector at Bay City had been 
building up his collection of rare books in Ameri- 
can history of the Discovery, Colonial and Revolu- 
tionary periods. When those opportunities came 
as a result of the war, America was fortunate to 
have such men to take advantage of them. But 


29 


thrice fortunate is the University which suddenly 
finds itself possessed of a great library made by 
one of these collectors. Not yet perhaps compar- 
able in many ways to the collections of rarities in 
the Bodleian at Oxford, or the Laurentian at Flor- 
ence, which have had years’ and even centuries’ start 
on it, yet itis an American library and being Amer- 
ican the future belongs to it. In its chosen field it 
is second to none in Europe and ranks among the 
four or five of its kind in America. Individual 
comparisons among these will always be impossible 
because they specialize in different aspects of 
Americana. 

But I cannot leave the book-collector without a 
word of tribute to the book-dealer, the man who 
unearths the treasures which the collector stores up 
for mankind. What we know of the collectors of 
the Italian Renaissance is due very largely to the 
letters of one Vespasiano di ‘Bistricci, an Italian 
fifteenth century book-seller. He found the books 
for the Medici, for Pope Nicholas V and sold them 
—at a profit, and who will deny that he earned the 
profit? Duke Frederick of Urbino bought large- 
ly from Vespasiano and then decided it was more 
discreet to employ him as a custodian and put him 
on a salary. It was a wise choice, as every book- 
collector will agree. What Vespasiano did for the 
Italians, that did the first Henry Stevens for the 
American collectors, James Lenox and John Car- 
ter Brown, whose collections have become the 
foundations of two of the greatest of American 

30 


libraries. Indeed the only book written on James 
Lenox as a collector was written by Henry Stevens. 
When Dr. Rosenbach goes abroad and buys a 
single tract for thirty-five thousand dollars, he is 
a great deal more than a book-dealer. He repre- 
sents the cult of the book-collector, and he believes 
in the book enough to sink a small fortune in it. 
When he resells, the thing that interests the his- 
torians of civilization is not what profit is made but 
the fact that the book will help to build up a great 
library somewhere. In writing his volume on this 
Library, Mr. Clements has taken pains to express 
the thanks that are due to his book-seller friends, 
Lathrop C. Harper of New York and Henry N. 
Stevens of London. It is impossible to avoid the 
part played by the book-seller in the art of book- 
collecting from the time of Vespasiano to that of 
these men and their colleagues and competitors. 
Moreover, the book-seller does us this great serv- 
ice: he prints catalogues of his wares. When the 
morning’s mail brings a sheaf of them to my desk, 
I have that delightful sensation which comes only 
to those who make their living doing what is also 
their greatest pleasure. In the middle of the morn- 
ing recently I found one of the members of the 
staff of the Library busily devouring one of Tre- 
gaskis’ catalogues. In ordinary office routine I 
should have frowned upon such an expenditure of 
“the company’s time.” But I feel this is just one 
of the contrasts between our Library and an ordi- 
nary library. That girl has her job because she 


31 


can suspend work and get lost in a second-hand cat- 
alogue of Americana. I would not print her name 
lest some other library like this try to get her for 
the very reason that she can read second-hand book 
catalogues with discrimination. The bibliographer 
owes a great debt to the book-seller. 

Such is the contribution made to the progress of 
humanity by the collector, and especially the col- 
lector of books. These collectors’ libraries are not 
mere sources of information—they are sources of 
inspiration. _Such a library has now appeared at 
Michigan, and its donor intends to profit by the 
mistakes of others and see to it that his treasures 
are available only to those whose reputation and 
training entitles them to call for his books. He was 
urged by some of his book-loving friends not to 
think of giving his books to a public institution, on 
the ground that public institutions were notorious 
in their inability to care for such priceless human 
records. He has shown an extraordinary degree of 
loyalty to his Alma Mater and confidence in her 
by giving his books to his University. The least 
his (University can do in return for his superb gift 
is to respect his ideals. — 


32 


Printed at the Alumni 
Press, University of Mich- 
igan, September 1925. One 
thousand copies, of which 
two hundred were bound 
in board and eight hun- 
dred in paper covers. 




















‘Pp 


2733.4 Ca4 A295 





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iron. 
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a 





